Scholarships Award Ceremony at UCL

UCL’s scholarship students were last night presented with their award certificates at the annual Scholarships Award Ceremony. The Jeremy Bentham Room at Gower Street was packed for the formal presentation ceremony and a lively drinks reception.

Attendees included ambassadors and senior diplomats, academics of UCL departments, UCL’s Pro-Provosts and supporters of scholarships at UCL, including representatives from Santander Universities/Abbey Santander, the Africa Educational Trust, the Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund, and the Open Society Foundation.

Professor Michael Worton, UCL Vice-Provost (Academic & International), and Professor David Bogle, Head of UCL’s Graduate School presented the scholarship certificates to the award-winners.

Opening the event, Professor Worton talked about UCL’s growing international reputation, recently highlighted by the university’s leap from 25th to ninth place in the THES-QS World University Rankings, and its global partnerships, exemplified by the foundation of the UCL Institute for Global Health.

He described UCL’s belief in education for global citizenship as the “capacity to make a real difference in the world in which we live” and celebrated the diversity of the UCL student body: “I think that we may be the most diverse university in the world in terms of our student body, in terms of the number of languages spoken on campus and the number of the countries from which our students come.”

UCL scholarship students are “exemplars” of these principles of global excellence, he added.

A wide range of scholarships is available to UCL students, awarded primarily on the basis of excellence in academic achievement. One exception to this rule is the Abbey “1 UCL” Excellence/Endeavour Awards, given for students’ outstanding achievement or endeavour in a non-academic field, and benefiting a charity of the student’s choice.

Both undergraduate and graduate students received their awards at the event. Jania Aghajanian received the Overseas Research Students Award to help fund her PhD in Computer Science. She applied for the scholarship after she discovered that she’d been awarded a distinction for her masters in Computer Science, and was thrilled to receive it: “It makes such a big difference to me financially. I’m loving my time at UCL. Everyone in my department is friendly and helpful – they are all so smart. I’ve been doing an internship with Google, but I also love academic research, so I’m not sure yet which I will pursue once I’ve finished.”

Laura Huxley received a UCL Futures Master’s Scholarship to support her in her MA in the Reception of the Classical World. This is an entirely new MA programme within UCL Greek & Latin, a fact that attracted Laura: “I did my undergraduate degree here and I love my department, and this felt like the perfect way to round off my studies. I hope to gain skills of research, presentation and analysis which I will use in my future career.”

The event was organised by Amelie Handke, Shanaz Begum and Jing Chang in the UCL Scholarships Office.

To find out more about UCL scholarships and funding, use the links at the top of the article.

Image 1: Mekhala Krishnamurthy won three scholarships - a UCL Graduate School Research Scholarship, a UCL Global Excellence Scholarship and an Overseas Research Students Award

ContextScholarships at UCL are supported by many different sources, including UCL itself, the British government, and the UK Research Councils, foreign governments, industry, trusts and foundations – and through the generosity of UCL’s alumni and friends.

Use the links below to read recent stories about UCL scholarships funding.